Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life

In 2004, James Blake's life was getting more perfect by the day. A rising tennis star, with each passing year his game seemed to improve. In 2002, he was named Sexiest Male Athlete by People, and along the way he continued to gain in the rankings and earn respect on the court. Each day seemed to offer a new milestone, a new achievement; he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of the ride.

But that life came to an abrupt halt in May 2004 when Blake broke his back in a freak accident on the court. A few months later, as Blake was recovering from his injury, he suffered another tremendous setback when his father–the man who had raised him and provided the inspiration for his tennis career–lost his battle with stomach cancer. Shortly after his father's death, Blake's situation was further complicated when he contracted Zoster, a rare virus that paralyzed half of his face and threatened to end his already jeopardized tennis career.

Breaking Back tells the story of the tumultous year that followed these three devastating events, detailing how Blake persevered through hardship to become one of the best tennis players in the world. Here Blake explains how the wisdom and words that his father imparted to him over the years gave him the ability to succeed in the face of these seemingly insurmountable odds. Though these trials proved the most difficult of his life, ultimately this trifecta of tragedy became the culmination of all his father's lessons, showing Blake that even in death, his father was still teaching him how to be a man.

In the spirit of Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking comes this remarkable tale of strength and determination from one of tennis's biggest stars. A story of passion, willpower, and the unbreakable bonds between a father and a son, Breaking Back is one athlete's account of finding hope in the bleakest of times.

From inside the book

Results 1-4 of 4

Page 3 The only catch was that the doctors told me that it could take years to recover,
and so the question of whether or not I would ever play again continuously
lingered in the air. Zoster is often triggered by stress, so it made perfect sense
that it hit ...

Page 10 I told my mother about what he said, and she replied that she didn't see why I
wouldn't be loved by both communities, an outcome that hadn't even occurred to
me before she mentioned it. And fortunately for me, what she predicted is exactly
...

Page 25 We were heartened when she told us that he was eligible for an experimental
drug that had had some small, but positive, effect on black and Asian patients.
Then she shattered our ex- pectations all over again when she told us, with
sunny ...

Page 30 Although Carlos had seen me play, it was, I've been told, a USA Today sports
section cover story on me and my brother, when we were still competing for
Harvard, with a huge photo of us, that really got the other suits at the agency
jazzed ...

Well Written

User Review - sugarhill203 - Overstock.com

I found the book interesting and easy to read due to the content and good writting. Being a tennis fan I found the book to show the reasons the commentators use very positive words describing James Blake. James his mother and brother are always shown respect when referring to them.Read full review

About the author (2007)

James Blake has been a professional tennis player since 1999, when he left Harvard to join the professional tennis circuit. He grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, and currently resides in Tampa, Florida.